PSX Extreme

Site Stats

Japanese PlayStation Store Heading Towards Virtual Console?

You know, all we could say when seeing this was something along the lines of, "Hey. HEY. Heeeeeeey...!" I'm gonna move to Japan.

If you weren't already aware, there are an absurd number of original PlayStation classics on the Japanese Store; there are so many, just sitting there, waiting to be downloaded. North American gamers have nowhere near as many and our European friends have even less. But to add to the irritation, it now seems as if the Japanese PSN is expanding beyond the PlayStation realm: according to Joystiq, Sony has announced four PC Engine (Turbografx-16) titles that will be added to the already-immense library of downloadable classics on the Japanese Store: Bomberman '94, New Adventure Island, Sengoku Mahjong and Devil's Crush. Each will retail for 600 yen, which is about the same price of games on the Wii Virtual Console. Like most stuff on the PSN, they will be playable on both the PS3 and PSP, and it seems clear that Sony may make further strides towards a Virtual Console of their own. The only problem is, we may never see it in this country, which would be a definite drawback... Just think of all the games out there that might end up on the Store!

If you eliminate the PlayStation restriction, we could nab titles from all over the damn place. What old Nintendo or Sega titles would you pay for? How many old classics would you buy? For a cheap price, I'd pick up more than a few...

Comments (31 posts)

I've been dying to play Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition and Chrono Trigger again. I still have most of my old games, as well as all the consoles. But these two I can't find, and I want to play them again. That would be cool. As for the Japan PSN, I may have to make a new account...Last edited by GuernicaReborn on 7/15/2009 11:20:11 AM

Have you looked at the library of games (all of them, PSN, PS3, PSP and PS1 classics combined)on the US PS Store recently, it's actually quite large. Surprisingly so. And then theres the add-on content....

Technically, the PS3 is a powerhouse that should be able to emulate anything up to and including the PS2. So a virtual console should be well within it's grasp, if it has to work on the PSP as well, then the performance targets will be a bit lower, but the PSP is a very capable computational device in it's own right, and should be able to emulate a lot of systems.

Maybe we could get "Mr. Bones" from the Sega Saturn. I loved that game!! I would actually just be happy to get all of the games that japan currently has. Is this a licencing issue or what? I do not understand how one country can get a game while others can not IE Outrun online. Ireland has it, but USA does not? anyone know why this is and is there a loophole or an experation date on it??

Copyright and contract laws that apply to specific countries, and an exclusivity clause or two are your most likely reasons for the PS3 (PSN) version of Outrun being available in Europe but not NA. After all the XBL version made it to the US....

Ben says the Playstation restriction would have to be lifted. I don't know what that is and I'm sure even without it we wouldn't get Mario and Zelda, but not everything belonged to Nintendo in the old days.

Great, so we only have to wait 95 years for the copyrights to expire??? I swear if I owned a older game regardless of the original system it was published on, I would want to make some additional money of of it...

Are these games remastered for HD display? If so, I would love to revisit my N64 days with Banjo, Donkey Kong, and Star Fox 64 to name a few. There are so many Nintendo games I adore in the N64 days. Too bad it isn't the same with the Wii.

I've seen many classic nintendo games such as Super Mario Bros. already playable on a psp. I would like the ability to play it on a big tv though.